Part 18 (1/2)
”Last night I was seized with a terrible feeling of anguish,” she confessed to Mother Agnes of Jesus on one occasion; ”I was lost in darkness, and from out of it came an accursed voice: 'Are you certain G.o.d loves you? Has He Himself told you so? The opinion of creatures will not justify you in His sight.' These thoughts had long tortured me, when your little note, like a message from Heaven, was brought to me. You recalled to me, dear Mother, the special graces Jesus had lavished upon me, and, as though you had had a revelation concerning my trial, you a.s.sured me I was deeply loved by G.o.d, and was on the eve of receiving from His Hands my eternal crown. Immediately peace and joy were restored to my heart. Yet the thought came to me, 'It is my little Mother's affection that makes her write these words.' Straightway I felt inspired to take up the Gospels, and, opening the book at random, I lighted on a pa.s.sage which had hitherto escaped me: 'He whom G.o.d hath sent speaketh the Words of G.o.d, for G.o.d doth not give the Spirit by measure.'[7] Then I fell asleep fully consoled. It was you, dear Mother, whom the Good G.o.d sent me, and I must believe you, because you speak the Words of G.o.d.”
For several days, during the month of August, Therese remained, so to speak, beside herself, and implored that prayers might be offered for her. She had never before been seen in this state, and in her inexpressible anguish she kept repeating: ”Oh! how necessary it is to pray for the agonising! If one only knew!”
One night she entreated the Infirmarian to sprinkle her bed with Holy Water, saying: ”I am besieged by the devil. I do not see him, but I feel him; he torments me and holds me with a grip of iron, that I may not find one crumb of comfort; he augments my woes, that I may be driven to despair... . And I cannot pray. I can only look at Our Blessed Lady and say: 'Jesus!' How needful is that prayer we use at Compline: 'Procul recedant somnia et noctium phantasmata!' ('Free us from the phantoms of the night.') Something mysterious is happening within me. I am not suffering for myself, but for some other soul, and satan is angry.” The Infirmarian, startled, lighted a blessed candle, and the spirit of darkness fled, never to return; but the sufferer remained to the end in a state of extreme anguish.
One day, while she was contemplating the beautiful heavens, some one said to her: ”soon your home will be there, beyond the blue sky. How lovingly you gaze at it!” She only smiled, but afterwards she said to the Mother Prioress: ”Dear Mother, the Sisters do not realise my sufferings. Just now, when looking at the sky, I merely admired the beauty of the material heaven--the true Heaven seems more than ever closed against me. At first their words troubled me, but an interior voice whispered: 'Yes, you were looking to Heaven out of love. Since your soul is entirely delivered up to love, all your actions, even the most indifferent, are marked with this divine seal.' At once I was consoled.”
In spite of the darkness which enveloped her, her Divine Saviour sometimes left the door of her prison ajar. Those were moments in which her soul lost itself in transports of confidence and love.
Thus it happened that on a certain day, when walking in the garden supported by one of her own sisters, she stopped at the charming spectacle of a hen sheltering its pretty little ones under its wing. Her eyes filled with tears, and, turning to her companion, she said: ”I cannot remain here any longer, let us go in!” And even when she reached her cell, her tears continued to fall, and it was some time before she could speak. At last she looked at her sister with a heavenly expression, and said: ”I was thinking of Our Lord, and the beautiful comparison He chose in order to make us understand His ineffable tenderness. This is what He has done for me all the days of my life. He has completely hidden me under His Wing. I cannot express all that has just stirred my heart; it is well for me that G.o.d conceals Himself, and lets me see the effects of His Mercy but rarely, and as it were from 'behind the lattices.' Were it not so I could never bear such sweetness.”
Disconsolate at the prospect of losing their treasure, the Community began a novena to Our Lady of Victories on June 5, 1897, in the fervent hope that she would once again miraculously raise the drooping Little Flower. But her answer was the same as that given by the blessed Martyr, Theophane Venard, and they were forced to accept with generosity the bitterness of the coming separation.
At the beginning of July, her state became very serious, and she was at last removed to the Infirmary. Seeing her empty cell, and knowing she would never return to it, Mother Agnes of Jesus said to her: ”When you are no longer with us, how sad I shall feel when I look at this cell!”
”For consolation, little Mother, you can think how happy I am up there, and remember that much of my happiness was acquired in that little cell; for,” she added, raising her beautiful eyes to Heaven, ”I have suffered so much there, and I should have been happy to die there.”
As she entered the Infirmary she looked towards the miraculous statue of Our Lady, which had been brought thither. It would be impossible to describe that look. ”What is it you see?” said her sister Marie, the witness of her miraculous cure as a child. And Therese answered: ”Never has she seemed to me so beautiful ...
but to-day it is the statue, whereas that other day, as you well know, it was not the statue!” And from that time she often received similar consolations.
One evening she exclaimed: ”Oh, how I love Our Blessed Lady! Had I been a Priest, how I would have sung her praises! She is spoken of as unapproachable, whereas she should be represented as easy of imitation... . She is more Mother than Queen. I have heard it said that her splendour eclipses that of all the Saints as the rising sun makes all the stars disappear. It sounds so strange.
That a Mother should take away the glory of her children! I think quite the reverse. I believe that she will greatly increase the splendour of the elect ... Our Mother Mary! Oh! how simple her life must have been!” and, continuing her discourse, she drew such a sweet and delightful picture of the Holy Family that all present were lost in admiration.
A very heavy cross awaited her before going to join her Spouse.
From August 16 to September 30, the happy day of her death, she was unable to receive Holy Communion, because of her continual sickness. Few have hungered for the Bread of Angels like this seraph of earth. Again and again during that last winter of her life, after nights of intolerable pain, she rose at early morn to partake of the Manna of Heaven, and she thought no price too heavy to pay for the bliss of feeding upon G.o.d. Before depriving her altogether of this Heavenly Food, Our Lord often visited her on her bed of pain. Her Communion on July 16, the feast of Our Lady of Mount Carmel, was specially touching. During the previous night she composed some verses which were to be sung before Communion.
Thou know'st the baseness of my soul, O Lord, Yet fearest not to stoop and enter me. Come to my heart, O Sacrament adored! Come to my heart ... it craveth but for Thee! And when Thou comest, straightway let me die Of very love for Thee; this boon impart!
Oh, hearken Jesus, to my suppliant cry: Come to my heart!
In the morning, when the Holy Viatic.u.m was carried to the Infirmary, the cloisters were thickly strewn with wild flowers and rose-petals. A young Priest, who was about to say his first Ma.s.s that day in the Chapel of the Carmel, bore the Blessed Sacrament to the dying Sister; and at her desire, Sister Mary of the Eucharist--whose voice was exceptionally sweet--sang the following couplet:
Sweet martyrdom! to die of love's keen fire: The martyrdom of which my heart is fain!
Hasten, ye Cherubim, to tune your lyre; I shall not linger long in exile's pain!
Fulfill my dream, O Jesus, since I sigh Of love to die!
A few days later Therese grew worse, and on July 30 she received Extreme Unction. Radiant with delight the little Victim of Love said to us: ”The door of my dark prison is ajar. I am steeped in joy, especially since our Father Superior has a.s.sured me that to-day my soul is like unto that of a little child after Baptism.”
No doubt she thought she was quickly to join the white-robed band of the Holy Innocents. She little knew that two long months of martyrdom had still to run their course. ”Dear Mother,” she said, ”I entreat you, give me leave to die. Let me offer my life for such and such an intention”--naming it to the Prioress. And when the permission was refused, she replied: ”Well, I know that just at this moment Our Lord has such a longing for a tiny bunch of grapes--which no one will give Him--that He will perforce have to come and steal it... . I do not ask anything; this would be to stray from my path of self-surrender. I only beseech Our Lady to remind her Jesus of the t.i.tle of _Thief,_ which He takes to Himself in the Gospels, so that He may not forget to come and carry me away.”
One day Soeur Therese took an ear of corn from a sheaf they had brought her. It was so laden with grain that it bent on its stalk, and after gazing upon it for some time she said to the Mother Prioress: ”Mother, that ear of corn is the image of my soul. G.o.d has loaded it with graces for me and for many others. And it is my dearest wish ever to bend beneath the weight of G.o.d's gifts, acknowledging that all comes from Him.”
She was right. Her soul was indeed laden with graces, and it was easy to discern the Spirit of G.o.d speaking His praises out of the mouth of that innocent child.
Had not this Spirit of Truth already dictated these words to the great Teresa of Avila:
”Let those souls who have reached to perfect union with G.o.d hold themselves in high esteem, with a humble and holy presumption. Let them keep unceasingly before their eyes the remembrance of the good things they have received, and beware of the thought that they are practising humility in not recognising the gifts of G.o.d.